Sandy Alderson told reporters today that agent Michael Bourn’s agent, Scott Boras, had always insisted on including a fifth-year vesting option, which was so easy to attain it was more-or-less a five-year deal.

Alderson said he was not willing to give that level commitment.

Also, he said, ‘at least early on,’ MLB seemed amenable to protecting his team’s first-round draft pick, in the event he signed Bourn. However, that turned out to not be the case later on.

In other words, as he explained, he never got to dealing with the draft-pick issue because of his refusal to give Bourn a fifth-year vesting option.

Bourn eventually signed a four-year deal with the Indians that includes the desired vesting option.

“Obviously, we made a string effort to sign him and we weren’t able to do it, which is unfortunate,” said Alderson.

In regards to the current state of the outfield, he said, in his view, the free-agent market for outfielders is ‘closed.’

There is an opportunity in this camp for lots of different players to land a starting job in the outfield, he explained, and he’s looking forward to seeing who steps up.